A READER gets in touch to voice their frustration over the delay and challenges to bringing a Ukrainian refugee family to stay with them.

IS the Home Office incompetent, obstructive or both?

We made contact with a Ukrainian family and submitted visa applications on their behalf on March 26. The family, a woman, her 15-year-old son and 70-year-old mother, left Kharkiv after their apartment was shelled, leaving a large hole in a bedroom wall.

They travelled to a small village outside Brno, Czechia, where they are in temporary accommodation, with no job or income, and are running out of money.

Apart from the initial notification that the visa applications had been submitted, we have had no information on their progress, or further queries. It is now almost six weeks and these visas are now of utmost urgency. Our local MP has tried to follow this up with the Home Office in Westminster but so far without success.

We are frustrated, they are desperate. It is an appalling example of this Government’s inability or unwillingness to follow through on its promises.

Anne and Kim Davies, Durham City

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